Til Kingdom Come
by LadyOverkill
Summary: BTVS cross-over with Kingdom Hospital - Paul finds himself transported to Sunnydale, where the Slayer and her friends must fight to send him back to the Afterlife, before the gateway between dimensions collapse.
1. Chapter One: A Gathering of Vampires

**'Til Kingdom Come**  
  
AN – My new fan fiction – 'TKC', a cross-over between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital. If you read, please let me know what you think, and there'll be more coming very soon!  
  
**Chapter One**  
  
The Slayer and her gang moved nimbly through the trees, the occasional snapping of a twig the only sound to be heard. Buffy led her nervous friends through the graveyard – her Slayer Senses ready and waiting to pick up the scent of a hungry vampire.  
  
Tonight's patrol had been a quiet one. On an average night of work, Buffy and her friends could expect to come across at least a few vamps who had crept out of their crypts to feast on Sunnydale's inhabitants – tonight, however, there had been nothing, and Buffy didn't like it. Neither did the Slayer's Watcher, Giles, who marched beside the girl armed with a crucifix as they made their way past the overgrown headstones and broken monuments that made up Sunnydale's cemetery.  
  
Buffy's best friends, sweet natured Willow and quick-witted Xander, had decided to accompany the Slayer on tonight's hunt as they had, as Xander put it, 'nothing better to do during summer vacation'. He clearly hadn't known what he was in for as he followed the others through the humid graveyard, bottle of holy water clutched tightly to his chest. Willow had a slightly more optimistic view on the situation – she decided that no vampires was a good thing, although she admitted that if they weren't outside eating people, they were probably inside plotting the end of the world – which wasn't a good thing. Willow was ready to lose herself in her thoughts some more when Xander's arm stopped her in her tracks. She looked ahead – it was Buffy. The Slayer had stopped behind a tall oak tree – she was peering round its trunk, almost timidly – this struck Willow as very odd. Buffy was afraid of nothing.  
  
The redhead made her way to the blonde's side – and her eyes fell upon the site that had seemingly frightened the Slayer.  
  
Vampires. Hundreds of them, maybe even a thousand – all crowding round a blue light that stood where the statue of an angel should have – a blue light, a the foot of which a body lay.  
  
The vampire standing closest to the body touched the light, and was sent reeling back by a bolt of electricity – the other monsters muttered curiously.  
  
"What the hell is that thing?" One vampire called from the back.  
  
"If we knew, would we still be standing here?" Another jeered in return.  
  
From where Willow stood, she couldn't make out what was so fascinating about the light – for fascinating it must have been, as the vampires couldn't stop staring at it. They stood, fixated, all eyes directed towards the sapphire glow. Nobody moved – everything was quiet again. It was a perfect time to strike, Willow thought. The Slayer had evidently realised this too, and had pulled out a stake and prepared to attack.  
  
Before Buffy had time to get to work, however, the blue light in the tree went out.  
  
The cemetery was plunged into an eerie darkness – the vampires roused from their trance immediately and began to walk away from where the light had been – the few beasts that came the Slayer's way were dusted, and it wasn't long before the cemetery was, once again, silent as the grave.  
  
With the vampires gone, the gang dashed over to where the body still lay – half covered in dust and leaves the vampires had kicked up. It was a boy, perhaps no older than eighteen. He was dressed rather old-fashioned – brown pants held up with leather braces, white shirt, scuffed black boots – his long dark hair covered his pale face. Giles dropped to his knees beside him and felt his wrist.  
  
"He's cold."  
  
'Dead,' Buffy thought, 'A snack one of the vampires caught before the pretty blue light was noticed.' The Slayer turned to leave, but Giles' hand lingered on the boy's chest. The Watcher's aged fingers slipped beneath the boy's shirt, searching for something. It was a moment before Giles found what he was after – and a moment more before he spoke.  
  
"His heart is beating."

* * *

The fire blazed contentedly in its place as the occupants of the room milled around silently, waiting for their guest to awake.  
  
Buffy had allowed Giles to bring the boy back to the library. He lay on there floor next to the newly-installed fire – a blanket covered him and a rolled-up jacket acted as his pillow. As he slept his dreamless sleep, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles had been researching the possible meaning or uses of blue lights that mysteriously appear in cemeteries, and unsurprisingly, nothing plausible had been discovered.  
  
Giles searched harder than the rest – his mind set on discovering why the vampires had been so entranced by the light, and why they had not bitten the boy – Buffy had checked his neck for marks, and he was 'all clear' as she had put it.  
  
An hour dragged slowly past, with still no results from the heavy text books and computer screens. Movement from by the fireplace bought their attention gratefully away from their fruitless work. The boy was awake and sitting up right, looking worriedly around at the people he was confronted with.  
  
Buffy stood from her seat and took a step towards the boy, who scurried backwards, the back of his ragged shirt just inches from the flames of the fire.  
  
"Hey," the Slayer said calmly, managing a tired smile. "I'm Buffy. This is Giles, Willow, and Xander," She nodded to each of her friends in turn, "What's your name?"  
  
The boy looked confused for a moment as he took in the faces of the four people he shared the room with.  
  
"I'm Paul," he barely whispered, colour creeping into his cheeks. "…Am I in hell?"  
  
Buffy's smile widened, she looked knowingly at the boy named Paul.  
  
"You could say that." 


	2. Chapter Two: The Boy Named Paul

**'Til Kingdom Come**  
  
**Chapter Two**  
  
The days following the strange events at Sunnydale Cemetary seemed to melt into one long week. No further progress had been made by the Scooby Gang as to what the blue light was and what it meant – and more importantly, who Paul was and what they were to do with him.  
  
Since Paul had awoken to tell the Slayer his name and enquire as to whether he was in hell, he hadn't spoken a single word. He mostly slept, curled up by the open fire, his face now a much more healthy shade of pale (although he still resembled a corpse rather than a living person). Buffy had considered bringing her fists down upon the boy until he spoke, her frustration over the situation was growing each day and her patience was growing thin with the boy who would not speak. Giles had assured her that beating Paul to within an inch of his life wouldn't help matters, and that they perhaps should wait until he was ready to talk.  
  
But then the Gang had noticed the marks.  
  
Thin marks, dark purple but almost painfully black against the boy's skin, around his wrists and neck – Willow had spotted them one night whilst she had been playfully stoking the fire – his skin, bared by the ragged shirt he wore about his shoulders, seemed to be drowned in these marks around his wrists and neck – and, after a closer inspection courtesy of the Slayer, the marks were also present around his thin ankles and the top of his legs.  
  
None of them had said a word, but there had seemed to be a unanimous decision in the air that night that none of them would give up until the mystery of Paul and the blue light had been solved. But first thing's first, they had to get Paul to speak to them.

* * *

"So…after three hours of Xander-enforced interrogation, we have yet to discover anything about you, other than that your name is Paul. Am I correct?"  
  
The cold eyes of the boy named Paul glared back into Xander's own, not a flicker of emotion played on his young face as he stared holes through the feisty American – he appeared to either not understand, or he didn't care to reply.  
  
"O-kay…" Xander started, both eyebrows raised – his patience was wearing thin. "Let's try again shall we. Paul, ol' buddy, where're you from?"  
  
Paul didn't reply.  
  
"Ohio? Los Angeles? Merry old England? Or do you prefer more exotic locations, such as the Canaries or…Southern France? Oh, let me guess, you're a zombie right? You're dead as those freaks that found you there that liked your pretty light? Am I getting through to you here Paul, because I really think you're a lost cause right about now." Xander stopped, sucking in a deep breath, his sarcasm momentarily spent. He dropped the blank sheet of the paper to his lap, he had been meaning to write notes on it of what Paul said to him – unsurprisingly, the sheet had remained blank for the past three hours.  
  
Xander had noticed, however, the slightest flicker in the boy's eyes when he had mentioned the word 'dead'. He was ready to pursue this new angle in as sarcastic a manner as possible, but was interrupted by an angry Buffy – who had been watching the pseudo-interview from her seat near the door.  
  
"Will you just talk already? What exactly are you trying to achieve by not talking? Just tell us where you came from, how you got here, and how we can send you back before I expand my Slayer horizons to include staking annoying mutes named Paul!" Buffy's voice had risen to an angry shout, venom coursing through her veins. She forced herself to calm down as she saw the tears dancing in Paul's eyes. He dropped his head into his hands and started to sob quietly, the words tumbling from his mouth barely audible above his desperate cries.  
  
"I don't know how I got here, okay? Last thing I remember was walking down the Hospital corridor, and then I woke up here so I'm sorry if –"  
  
"Hospital?" Buffy interrupted; the relief showing on her face that the boy had finally decided to speak. "You were in a Hospital?"  
  
"Well, yes, the Kingdom…I was going to see Mary, she was probably up to something, that girl always is…and I, I…but I never got there. I came here instead. Am I far from the Kingdom?"  
  
Xander raised his eyebrows and cast a confused glance in the Slayer's direction. "The…kingdom? Kingdom of what?"  
  
Paul wiped the tears from beneath his eyes, his frustration and fear fading. "Kingdom Hospital…the Kingdom…the old mill fire…Mary the bell-girl…Am I near there?" He looked desperately to Buffy, deeply worried by the fact that neither she nor Xander seemed to know about the Hospital's existence.  
  
The Slayer looked quizzically at Paul, her mind searching for 'Kingdom Hospital' in its long list of memories. She couldn't remember having heard of the place. She shook her head slowly and sighed loudly. "So…you were in a hospital and magically ended up in a cemetery full of vampires, and you have no idea how it happened?"  
  
Paul let out another loud sob. "I'm sorry, I can't remember, I only remember going after Mary!"  
  
"Wait a second," Xander started, a finger to his lips in thought, "Who's this Mary?"  
  
Paul swallowed and wiped more tears from his eyes before replying. "She's the bell-girl, she's always tries to speak to the Otherside and it doesn't work, she never listens to me, she thinks I want to hurt her but I only want to help her. I don't want to leave the Kingdom."  
  
Buffy looked thoughtful for a moment, her heart softening towards the boy whom she had been so inexplicably angry towards only minutes earlier. 'Such a sucker for the cry-baby's', she thought. She looked around at Giles, who had looked up from his musty text books to stare at Paul with a look of deep concentration etched on his face.  
  
"Did you say…Kingdom Hospital?" The Watcher enquired, his eyes never leaving the boy.  
  
"Y, yes…have you heard of it?" Paul's face brightened considerably, a hopeful smile daring to grace his face.  
  
"Yes, I do believe I have." Giles rose from his seat and crossed to the bookshelves, his fingers dragging across the spines of several thick volumes, before pausing to pull one of the books from its dusty home. He flicked casually through the yellowed pages before stopping shortly before the centre of the book. "Yes…Kingdom Hospital…it has a history of paranormal activity, going back to earlier centuries. I had no idea it was still a functioning hospital, but if you say it's still there, then…" The Watcher's sentence trailed off, his eyes widening at the sight of something on the page.  
  
She turned to Buffy and passed her the book, an aging finger pointing to a fading illustration on one of the pages.  
  
Buffy felt some of the colour drain from her face.  
  
It was a picture, a drawing, of Paul – dressed exactly as he was now.  
  
Buffy looked up to verify what she was seeing.  
  
She blinked, silently hoping that when she opened her eyes the picture in the book would have been nothing more than a figment of her overactive imagination. But it was still there when she returned her gaze to the ancient pencil lines, and there was no mistaking that the boy that sat before her, draped in blankets by the fire, was the boy illustrated in this book, that must have been at least a hundred years old.  
  
A caption next to the drawing stated plainly, "Paul – The Doctor's Assistant." 


	3. Chapter Three: Food for Thought

**'Til Kingdom Come**  
  
**AN** – Hey, sorry that the story's so slow moving at the moment – action and romance is coming in later chapters, so don't worry about that, please continue to read As for the pairing…hmm, I don't want to spoil the surprise. It should become pretty clear in the coming chapters anyway! Please enjoy, and read and review!  
  
**Chapter Three**  
  
The mouse scuttled hurriedly across the cold wooden flooring of the library, its nose twitching as it carried out its nightly hunt, searching for crumbs of food and a warm place to sleep. Its delicate whiskers brushed against the shoe of a sleeping boy, his forehead creased in frustration, his arms switching occasionally as he found himself locked in a nightmare.  
  
The mouse continued its hunt alongside the sleeping form of Paul – it paused for a second to sniff the boy's fingers, hoping to find a trace of the day's lunch still beneath his fingernails – but a split second was all it took for the lurking figure's hand to close around the tiny frame of the mouse. Within the time it takes for an average person to blink, Paul was sitting bolt upright, the squealing creature trapped between his fingers. He smiled a hungry smile and pushed the terrified mouse into his mouth, the sickening crunch of bones echoing around the quiet library as the rodent's body was mashed into a lifeless pulp by the boy's jaws. Blood trickled slowly down Paul's chin as he chewed the mouse, savouring the taste of life as the mouse's own ebbed away into blackness. As the last of the mouse slid down the boy's throat, he wiped the red fluid from his chin and smiled as he felt a swelling of life from inside his body. 'That's better,' he thought, a flash of sapphire dancing in his eyes, 'much better, in fact.'  
  
"There are only two things I need to know Giles, who is the Doctor, and what is Kingdom Hospital?" The Slayer's voice was stern, her eyes staring directly into those of her Watcher, waiting for his lips to part and to tell her all she wanted to know.  
  
"Well, the Hospital is…a hospital. I got Willow to look it up on the internet and it appears, to this day, to be a normal functioning hospital in Maine – perfectly normal, apart from the fact it appears to experience minor earthquakes. Willow gained access to the, umm, medical records and searched for patients under the name of Paul, but as you can imagine, with search a common name the results we got back will take us hours, possibly an entire day to go through."  
  
Buffy digested this information slowly, thinking carefully before replying. "We've got no choice but to go through it, we need to know who he is, and he doesn't seem keen on telling us anything else since his little spell yesterday so this is all we have to go on. Isn't there a way you could do a search for his age or something?"  
  
"Well yes, we could enter his date of birth and narrow the results considerably," The Watcher started tentatively, "The only problem is, we're not sure _how_ old he is – he _looks_ young, but if it really is him in that book then he must be over a century old."  
  
The Slayer nodded, lost in thought. She turned her head to watch where Paul lay, apparently dozing peacefully. She considered what to do before telling Giles to go through all the Hospital's patients named Paul while she herself had a word with the boy.  
  
A word, however, was not quite what she had in mind for him.  
  
She marched over to where he lay, pulling the blankets from him, and pulled him by his hair to his knees. The boy gasped in shocked at his rude awakening, and fixed his eyes worriedly on the Slayer's contorted face.  
  
"Look, 'Paul', we're doing all we can to send you back to the Hospital, but we're not getting anywhere fast, and you're not helping. Tell me how old you are, before I beat it out of you, I'm not in the mood for games."  
  
Willow and Xander looked up at the sound of their friend's angry voice, but Giles kept his eyes fixed on the computer screen, unsurprised.  
  
"I, I don't know how old I am!" The boy spluttered, tears threatening to spill down his face.  
  
"Bullshit," Buffy spat, swinging the boy round his hair and pushing him hard against the fireplace. She crouched down beside his quivering body, and looked him hard in the eye. "You know perfectly well how old you are. Now tell me."  
  
"I don't know, I swear! I was, well, I think I was eighteen when I, when I…I…" Paul looked down, apparently having discovered a fascinating interest in the library floor."  
  
"When you what, travelled back in time and drew a picture of yourself in the history books?" The Slayer rasped, her face just inches from that of Paul.  
  
"No! When I, when I…died."  
  
Buffy's grip on the boy's hair loosened, she didn't let go, but the lessening of her grip gave Paul the opportunity to pull free of her terrifying grip and scramble away from the fireplace. He reached for his blanket; as if beneath its thin cover lay his only salvation.  
  
"When you what?" The blonde said coarsely, turning to face him.  
  
"Died." Paul whispered in reply, unable to stop the frightened tears from tumbling down his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he continued slowly, "I don't mean to cause you any trouble. I just want to go back to the Kingdom."  
  
Buffy stood up, her well-built legs straightening, but unable to stop from shaking. "You're…dead?"  
  
Paul nodded, the sobs still wracking his body. "At least…I was. I have been, for a long time, but…," he paused, thinking of what to say next, "When I woke up here, I thought that Mary had done it, I thought she had finally got those Doctors to listen and to help her stop the Mill Fire. I assumed that…because I was bad…this was Hell, this was my punishment. But…you're not demons, you're people, and you're living, and you don't know why I'm here as much as I do. Have I been brought back to life?"  
  
Buffy stood, numb, unsure of what to say and yet wanting nothing more than to answer the poor boy's question. "I don't know," she managed to utter, "Who is Mary, and what mill fire? Who are the Doctors?"  
  
Paul swallowed, his crying momentarily stopped, pleased that the Slayer no longer seemed angry with him. "The Doctors, the living ones that work at the hospital. I don't know all their names, but one is called Hook. Mary was the bell girl, she died in a mill fire many years ago…she's trapped on the Otherside, with me and others, in the Kingdom…she wants to talk to the Doctors, she has…some God on her side…she wants to make it so that the fire never happened, so that she lived – but if she does that then the Kingdom's Otherside will disappear, and I'll have to go on to the Afterlife, and I'm afraid of that, that's why I try to stop her." He looked desperately at Buffy and her friends, his eyes silently pleading with them to understand that none of this was his fault.  
  
"I don't really understand what's going on," Xander offered, from his seat at one of the computers. "But from I gathered…we have a dead guy sitting on Giles' floor, who stops a girl called Mary from saving her own life. Is it just me who thinks this is like something out of a Batman movie?"  
  
"Shut up Xander," Willow said quietly, her gaze never leaving the pale boy named Paul. "Buffy…don't you think we should go to this hospital? See if we can find the Doctors?" She saw the hope flash behind Paul's eyes, and suppressed a pleased smile. Oh, how she loved to help.  
  
"Yes," the Slayer replied, almost dreamily. "…and we'll go now, before its dark and the vamps have time to play with Sunnydale."  
  
"Hey," Xander started, "If our buddy Paul here is alive now, don't you think we should get him a bite to eat or something first? If I'd been dead a long time, I know _I_ could murder a good sandwich."  
  
Willow nodded in agreement to Xander's apparently wise statement, and Buffy smiled. 'Always one to think of food is our Alexander', she thought to herself. "Okay, I think we can afford to stop for food then. Paul, what do you fancy?"  
  
All eyes focused on the boy. He grinned sheepishly, looking at the people around him. "Uhhh…no thanks," he said shyly, "I've already ate." 


	4. Chapter Four: Welcome To The Kingdom

'**Til Kingdom Come**

**AN** – Wow, a million apologies for the long wait! I finally finished writing my original fiction piece and so I now have time to get this story going properly! Anyway, this chapter's pretty long so I hope it makes up for it. Please read and review!

**Chapter Four**

Dr. Hook traipsed slowly down the corridor, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand as he made his way towards the double doors that lead to the reception area.

"Nice to see you, Dr. Hook!" a secretary dressed in a short black skirt and white overcoat chirped, a smile spreading across her face as the doctor nodded and winked in response. He took a moment to admire the secretary's legs before returning his attention to the desk that loomed up ahead.

"You rang?" He enquired; a hint of sarcasm in his voice, the tiredness still apparent on his face.

Behind the desk sat a stout woman, an obvious look of distaste displayed on her face as she observed the young doctor before her. "Yes, Doctor Hook, I did," she started, glaring bitterly at him as she spoke, "There's been a message left for you by a 'Mister Rupert Giles'. I tried to tell him that we don't take messages for staff but he made it quite clear that it was urgent, so I assured him I'd let you know." The secretary paused, her slow drawl momentarily stopped.

"And?" Dr. Hook asked, rubbing irritably at his eye.

"He said that he and some 'colleagues' are on their way here now from Sunnydale, they need to speak to you urgently about some 'paranormal activity'. I hope that means something to you, Doctor."

Dr. Hook looked thoughtfully at the receptionist, the itch in his eye growing stronger. "Where's Sunnydale?"

"Can't say I've heard of it myself, but it sounds nice."

Hook nodded, rubbing his eye frantically, allowing it to water. He made his way back through the double doors and down the corridor, thinking hard about 'Rupert Giles' and 'Sunnydale', as well as 'paranormal activity'. He was, of course, perfectly aware of the fact that the inexplicable earthquakes that often shook the Hospital had stopped – but he hadn't suspected anything sinister of it. In fact, he had welcomed not having to walk down the corridor and wonder which part of the wall was going to land on your head.

He passed the secretary from earlier and allowed himself to spare her another wink. She smiled shyly and tucked her hair behind her ear whilst turning a polite shade of pink.

"Have you seen Doctor Draper?" Hook called out as she passed him.

The secretary's smile faltered for a second, "No, I haven't Doctor Hook. If I see her shall I tell her you asked for her?"

The Doctor flashed a brilliant and well-rehearsed grin. "Thanks a lot!"

He rubbed his eye one last time before turning left down another corridor towards the elevator shafts. He yawned loudly as he jabbed one of the buttons and waited for the elevator to descend to his level.

He looked agitatedly at his watch.

He had to speak with Eleanor Druse.

"Next left?"

"Yes, um, it should be sign-posted once we're off the main road."

"Alright, hold on gang – this corner's gonna be a tight one!"

Xander swung the van around the corner, the vehicle relying heavily on two wheels for a perilous second before settling back on the tarmac with a screech and a skid of the wheels. "Everyone alright back there?" He enquired, exhaling loudly. He wasn't keen on these Maine streets, not one bit.

"If you call having your head stuck between The Slayer's hand and an ex-vengeance demons vengeance bits _alright_, then sure! I'm dandy!" The cloaked figure slumped in the back of the van snarled viciously, pulling himself upright and pulling the black material closer against his pale skin.

"Hey vamp, I'd watch it, Giles may have to throw up on you. He's looking a little…pasty!" Xander chirped back cheerfully from behind the wheel, glancing back over his shoulder to where Spike sat shrouded in his protective cloak, a lock of blond hair the only part of him visible in the darkness.

"No no, no puking, I'm fine." Giles murmured, turning his head to look out the passenger seat window, feeling the effect of the van's near-tumble and longing for the Hospital to appear up ahead. "Shouldn't be much longer, I don't think."

"Good," Buffy commented dryly, "If I have to sit here much longer with Little Black Whinging Hood I may just go insane." The Slayer ignored Spike's burning look and pulled a stake from the bag that sat at her feet. She played with it absent-mindedly as she looked around the van, smiling as she noticed Willow's keen interest in the boy who sat opposite her. "Remember Spike, this isn't a family outing. You're here for one reason only – and that's the Hospital."

"I know." The vampire muttered sourly, showing a little of his pale face as he looked at Buffy. "Doesn't mean I can't pick a little fun at people on the way now, does it?"

The Slayer sighed, shaking her head wearily. They had been in the van barely three hours and yet it already felt like an eternity. The air was stuffy and stale, and the loud snores coming from Anya's direction as she slept weren't doing much for her headache. She inhaled impatiently, grip tightening on her stake. She looked again at Willow and the boy, and felt calmer inside. Since Tara's death, Willow had been reluctant to look at much of anything with any interest, but the boy named Paul certainly seemed to have entranced her. In what way, Buffy couldn't tell – but any interest in another human being was healthy, The Slayer concluded, and so it was with hope that she watched her best friend's eyes flicker as they watched Paul. Paul himself looked considerably brighter than he had since they had found him – renewed almost, presumably because he was going back to his 'hospital' – and it was reassuring for Buffy to see that, even though he claimed to be dead, he knew how to smile.

"Wow, is _this_ the place we're looking for?!"

Buffy turned her head sharply, her trail of thought momentarily lost. She was glad to hear Giles' reply – "Yes, Kingdom Hospital of Maine, straight ahead." – And put her stake back into her bag. She prepared herself quickly and assigned Spike the task of waking the sleeping Anya.

As the van rolled up clumsily to the curb outside the hospital grounds, the back doors flew open. Buffy jumped down first, dumping her bag of 'goodies' on the sidewalk before turning round to help Willow and Paul out. She watched Xander and Giles lock the van and join the rest of the gang as they stood, hands round themselves against the cold (in Spike's case, his black coverings clutched frenziedly around him), waiting for their leader's command.

"Paul, is this the place? Is this your hospital?"

The boy looked timidly around at the towering building, watching as nurses and visitors zipped in and out of the looming glass doors, completely unaware of the motley crew that had just arrived. "I…I've never seen it from the outside…but, it…it feels right."

Buffy nodded and looked at Willow. She smiled as she saw the excitement dancing behind the witch's eyes. 'There's still life in her yet', The Slayer thought, as she picked up her bag and slung it carelessly over her shoulder. She spared a thought for her sister Dawn, who had stayed in Sunnydale with Amy in case there were any vampire-related emergencies. She knew her sister could handle it – anything – especially after all they had been through over the past year.

Buffy looked at her friends, her gang, and at Paul. "Come on," she said, starting up the steps that led past a statue of what appeared to be a doctor, "Let's get this over with before dark, I don't wanna know what sort of freaks hang around here at night."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that!" Spike called as he rushed alongside The Slayer, desperate to be inside and away from the burning sun.

Buffy smirked. Oh how she loved her job.


	5. Chapter Five: Undercover Exorcists

'**Til Kingdom Come**

**AN** – Heh, oh my God, I'm so sorry I've gone this long without updating – I recently started writing a new original story and I'm really getting into it and I've been pushing myself to get it finished, so all my FanFiction has been severely neglected! Not to worry though, I've got this chapter finished for you, so hopefully this will tide you over until I can get back to this story properly. Thanks for the reviews I've received so far, and as for the pairing? Well, all I can say is not to jump to conclusions so easily, all is not as it seems…

**Chapter Five**

"So…let me get this straight, Miss Summers. You say you and your friends here have travelled from…what was it, Sunnydale…? Yes, Sunnydale…to come to Kingdom Hospital and demand an audience with Doctor Hook about, what did you say…? _Ghosts_?"

The receptionist's slow drawl tugged at the Slayer's patience as she drummed her fingernails on the smooth surface of the hospital's front desk. "Yes, and we're kinda in a hurry – if you think we're insane then we'll gladly go and find this Doctor ourselves."

"No, no," the receptionist started, pushing a button on a microphone next to her and calling into the intercom for Hook. "Visitors are not allowed past this point unless accompanied by a hospital official. Please take a seat; I'm sure Doctor Hook will be here soon, provided he's not saving somebody's life. God forbid that might happen in a hospital, of all places."

Buffy was ready to leap over the desk and introduce the receptionist to her other, less understanding personality, when the double doors nearby were pushed open, and a young doctor, out of breath, skidded to a halt before them.

"Intercom? Me? Urgent?" The man panted, the badge pinned to his white jacket glinting in the bright lights of the hospital. The neat black print read 'DR. HOOK'. Buffy started forward, but was interrupted by the woman behind the desk.

"Yes Doctor, these people just arrived and insisted they needed to see you. I apologise if you were busy."

"Oh no, just seeing to a…patient." Hook stuttered, casting his wary eyes over the motley crew assembled before him. "What are these lovely people here for?"

"Ghosts, Doctor."

"_Ghosts_?"

Buffy winced at the exasperated look that was etched on the doctor's face, and prepared herself for a long and complicated speech of explanation. She was surprised to see the man crack into a grin, and even laugh a little, relief now the principal emotion evident on his face.

"Oh thank God for that, you came sooner than I expected. Paranormal activity, right? Well I guess you can get on with whatever it is you have to do, but first…If you follow me I'll take you to see a friend of mine, it'll be much better to talk about this in private."

Without another word, and with no interference from the zombie-like receptionist, Hook spun on his heels and marched back through the double doors behind him. Beckoning the Slayer and her group to follow him, he led them down a brightly lid corridor towards two elevator shafts. Casting furtive glances at each other, Buffy and her companions braced themselves for whoever this 'friend' of the doctor's might be. None of them paid much attention to Paul as he trailed behind reluctantly, each step he took towards the room they were headed for becoming increasingly hard to take.

* * *

Eleanor Druse sat up in her bed, her once brilliant-blonde hair now tumbling about her shoulders in soft whitened waves. In her hands sat a well-read battered paperback, about a young couple on a disastrous but heart-warming honeymoon in Hawaii. She was nearing the end of the book, but if asked could not have recalled more than one or two of the events that had happened in the story – her mind was racing with the thought of adventure and discovery, and the paperback, as she had suspected when she had first picked it up three nights ago, had done little to nothing to take her mind off things. The room she occupied was plain – a single framed photograph of a vase of flowers hung on the wall opposite her, a lamp sat on a plywood table next to her and the shrivelled bouquet that sat on the window-ledge was all that passed for homily decoration. Sighing with impatience, she found herself more than relieved when the door was opened for the third time that day – the first being the nurse that morning bringing her her breakfast, the second being Dr. Hook with some interesting revelations – and her favourite doctor, along with an unsightly rabble of strangers, gathered at the foot of her bed.

"Oh…I thought visiting time was over?"

"It is Eleanor, but I'm gonna make an exception for these people – they're who I told you about earlier…they called, remember? Why don't you hop on out of that bed of yours and take a seat over here, make some room for our guests. Then you can tell them all about the Hospital's recent goings-on."

Obediently, and without a word, Eleanor pushed herself out of the bed – any misconceptions Buffy may have had of this being a weak and ill woman were shattered, she was clearly very strong and in good health – and sank into a plastic chair that stood waiting in the corner. Smiling thinly, and looking more than a little nervous, she observed the people before her. "Do sit down on the bed, make yourselves comfortable. I fear we may be here for quite a while." She glanced at Hook before continuing, and he nodded. "Let's have a few introductions first, shall we? I'm Eleanor Druse…I've been expecting you for a long time. When the good Doctor here said that you had called, I was pleasantly surprised – I thought all the letters I had sent to you over the past few months had been merely tossed aside."

Buffy sat stunned for a moment, unsure of what to say. Fortunately, it was Xander that asked the crucial question that was playing on her mind. "…Letters? …Expecting us?"

"Why yes," she exclaimed, surprised at their confusion. "Are you not the exorcists I contacted? Here to rid us of the evil spirits?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow, suppressing the sudden urge to laugh out loud. She heard Spike mutter something that sounded very much like 'bloody lunatic' from within his blankets, but decided to let it slip. She was thinking much the same thing herself.

"Uhhh…exorcists? No, we're here from Sunnydale. I'm a vampire slayer." She stated her profession very matter-of-factly, always pleased to see the shock on people's faces when they realised she was being oh-so-serious. "I'm not here to slay vampires, but I am here to return a dead guy to his grave."

"Dead…?" was the reply from between the aged woman's lips.

"Yeah, but we'll get to that shortly," the Slayer replied casually, turning her attention to the people sat behind and around her. "First, as you said, introductions. I'm Buffy – saviour of the world several times over, but there's no need for formalities. This is Giles," she gestured towards a studious looking man, glasses sitting sensibly across his nose. "He's a librarian, and he's usually always right. This is Willow and Xander, and the corpse is Anya," Buffy pointed towards her three friends sat on the edge of the bed. Willow waved nervously, glancing at Anya who had fallen back to sleep and had started her own private pool of dribble on Xander's shoulder. "This," Buffy continued, poking Spike where she hoped he wouldn't mind, "is our resident vampire, Spike. Don't worry, he has a soul, but that's a long story. And finally," she said, turning to face the boy who was yet to utter a word, "is Paul – he's our problem child."

Eleanor's eyes followed Buffy's finger patiently as it weaved between the crowd of people. As she had made the final introduction, the old woman set her eyes on the pale face of the young man, and felt the breath catch in her throat. "You…" she muttered, narrowing her gaze, causing all others in the room with her to turn to face Paul. "You're evil. You know Mary. She's afraid of you."

The already frighteningly pale complexion on the boy's face seemed to turn into a new sickening shade of death. "Mary. Oh. You're that woman she's always messing with."

Eleanor nodded, aware of the blood rushing to her head. She forced herself to breath slowly, knowing it would be a seriously bad idea to faint at this moment. "You're dead. You're from Swedenborgian Space. Mary tells me about you, she's afraid of you – but she hasn't spoken to me lately, hasn't been able to…what have you done to her?"

Paul managed a shake of his head before he froze up, his body seeming to become rigid. A split second later, a tremor ran through the building – the bulb in the bar-light ahead shattered, sending shards of glass crashing to the floor below, scattering across the exposed bodies gathered around the woman. Buffy did not understand fully what the situation was, but she knew that she had to take charge.

"Look, we'll worry about Mary and Sweden-Borgia-whatever later – right now we need to find out why Paul isn't dead anymore," she glanced over in his direction, he seemed to have regained control of his body and had closed his eyes, "…and how we can send him back."

Eleanor nodded, wondering how these people could help. "You're right. Doctor Hook, go and get Elmer and Miss Draper immediately. In fact, find everyone who knows about the Mary Case. If the dead is coming back to life, then it looks like this requires something a bit more drastic than your average exorcism."


End file.
